NEW DELHI: The Centre is straining itself to unclog Delhi’s arteries, which it believes would require Rs 62,181 crore. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari told this paper at Delhi Dialogue that his ministry has kicked off 16 road projects measuring 862 km in length in the entire region, delivering many of them within a scheduled time.
His ministry is also in the process to provide Rs 1,500 crore to make Delhi roads dust-free, besides improving the landscape and drainage. The minister explained how a network of an expressway, underpasses and a flyover quickly spread out along Eastern Peripheral with a cost of Rs 12,000 crore in 2018. The 135km passageway was followed by the construction of a flyover and then an underpass at the Delhi-Gurugram stretch with a cost of Rs 1,000 crore in 2019.
The ministry also completed the construction of 8-lane corridors from Dhaula Kuan to the IGIA in 2020 and elevated U-turn near Ambience Mall with a cost of Rs 270 crore and Rs 163 crore, respectively.
“The other completed projects are the 4-lane UP-Haryana border at Sonipat, 6-lane Gurgaon to Sohna road and all the packages except Chipiyana ROB have also been completed of Delhi Meerut expressway. The ministry has spent Rs 8,000 crore along the 95-km carriageway which has eased the traffic up to a maximum extent,” he said.
The minister said the construction work of the bypass from Rangpuri has been started with a cost of Rs 3,000 crore and is likely to be completed by 2024-end. He said the bypass will link Vasant Kunj (Nelson Mandela Marg) to Dwarka Expressway, NH-48 and IGI Airport through a four-level interchange at Shiv Murti on NH-8. Also, construction works to ensure connectivity between IGIA to Jewar airport and to Delhi Mumbai Expressway have been kicked off and a total of Rs 2,000 crore has been allocated.
“Besides this, 70 per cent of work related to the construction of structures to improve connectivity between Delhi and Jaipur, 73 per cent of works of 4-laning of Gohana to Sonipat, 97 per cent of Delhi to Panipat and 80 per cent of Dwarka Eway have been completed.
Similar is the pace of work at the DND Interchange-Kalindi Kunj-Faridabad-Ballabgarh-Sohna stretch, the 6-laning of UER-II (Urban Extension Road) and 6-laning of Akshardham to the intersection of Eastern Peripheral Expressway,” he added.